Idiots With Dogs

My brother-in-law showed up with two gorgeous chocolate labs this weekend. They were in good shape, had wonderful dispositions, played nice with the kids, listened to commands, and were housebroken. They jumped around a bit, but at less than a year old, that’s to be expected. They have all their shots, and their AKC paperwork is ready for filing.

It shocked me to learn they were abandoned by my brother-in-law’s neighbor.

Rusty and Summer

The neighbor bought the dogs for his daughter, who moved out shortly after. The guy then decided the dogs were too much work to take care of, so his brilliant plan was to simply open the gate to the yard and turn them loose. He even admitted to thoughts of driving them out into the woods and dropping them off, but I’m guessing that would have taken too much effort.

I can understand when a dog isn’t right for a family. I can understand when circumstances change, such as a family forced to move to a new home that won’t accept dogs or when a child develops an allergy. I even understand that some dogs are just pure hellions and are too difficult to care for. What I can’t abide is idiots like this who neither think about what they’re doing when they buy a dog (much less two) and don’t have the brains to handle things properly when they realize they made a mistake.

My brother-in-law tells me his own first call was to the local no-kill shelter, which told him they were overloaded after the shutdown of an area puppy mill and couldn’t take the dogs. No problem, that still leaves several more alternatives: off the top of my head, there’s classified ads, Petfinder, vets & groomers, rescue societies, and public bulletin boards. Because they’re labs, I’d even stop at local sporting goods stores and gun shops to see if there are hunters who might be looking for dogs. Sweet dogs like this would be snapped up in a heartbeat. Fortunately for the dogs, my brother-in-law and his family are becoming attached to them, and may even keep them.

Makes me wonder what kind of father this douchebag was if he couldn’t even predict his daughter might move out before he bought two dogs for her.

About Mike Oliveri

Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. He is currently hard at work on the werewolf noir series The Pack for Evileye Books.